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1.1M CareFirst Users Records Compromised In Hack

CareFirst Health Insurance announced 1.1 million of its current and former user records had been compromised after their network was hit by a cyber-attack in June 2014.

CareFirst has a total of 3.4million users with operations in the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland.

The hack was discovered when the company initiated a security refresh, which is to offer better security. According to the company, the hackers only had gotten access to just one database. The statement about the hack was posted on their website, and it said that peopleís names, email addresses, birthdates and member ID numbers had been compromised.

The company said it does not ask for social security numbers or credit card information. Without this information and the information they do have, hackers canít do a large scale attack. However, FirstCare blocked all usersí accounts, and asked them to create new accounts.

Company CEO and President Chet Burrell said the company regrets the concerns people may have regarding the attack. He said the company is working with the people affected to make sure they fully understand the attack and its reach. Burrell said the company is offering the affected users with two years of free identity theft and credit monitoring protection to ensure financial security.

CareFirst isnít the first health insurance company to have been hacked. Last year, Anthem had nearly 100 million of its usersí accounts hacked and stolen. Obviously CareFirstís numbers appear much lighter than Anthemís but it may be enough for the industry to not ask for as much personal information from their users.

Companies such as Anthem or CareFirst may decide to hire hackers to test their network security, in order to make the networks stronger and make it difficult for hackers to get into.